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Cactus extract offers hangover help

28 June 2004

By Shaoni Bhattacharya

An extract of prickly pear cactus could herald help for hangovers, quelling some of the wretched symptoms that strike the morning after a night out.

Taking a capsule of the extract before a night of drinking and partying significantly reduced some of the symptoms of a hangover in young adults, compared with a placebo, showed a study by US scientists.

The extract produced statistically significant improvements in the nausea, lack of appetite and dry mouth afflicting the volunteers the morning after they had spent four hours swigging spirits. The overall assessment of hangover severity, based on nine symptoms, was reduced by nearly a fifth, but this result was not statistically significant.

Jeff Wiese, at Tulane University, New Orleans, stresses&colon; “Our interest is not to eliminate the symptoms of the alcohol hangover so people could drink with impunity. The only known cure for the alcohol hangover is to not drink.”

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“Our interest is to discover what is causing the alcohol hangover, and to investigate what harms may be associated with the syndrome,” he told New Scientist.

Vodka, gin and rum

Hangovers, or veisalgia as the condition is called medically, carry huge economic and health consequences, say Wiese’s team. But despite this, little is known about its mechanism.

It has been associated with a heightened inflammatory response by the body to alcohol impurities called congeners and some preservatives. Extract from the skin of prickly pear fruit, called OFI, had previously been shown to dampen inflammatory response.

So Wiese’s team gave 55 adults aged between 21 and 35 years old either OFI or placebo five hours before they staged a party. The subjects were given a fast-food dinner and then allowed to choose their tipple for the evening from vodka, gin or rum, which are relatively low in impurities, or bourbon, scotch or tequila, which are relatively high.

The team also tried to create a realistic situation for the alcohol consumption by throwing a party. This is because previous research suggested behaviour at parties could cause some hangover symptoms, e.g. sore muscles from over-enthusiastic dancing.

The inebriated party-goers were then driven home by limo. Two weeks later the party was repeated with those who had received a placebo getting OFI and vice versa.

Inflammation process

The morning after the parties, those given OFI were nursing less severe hangovers than those given placebo. In particular, it slashed the risk of a severe hangover by half.

The researchers also measured levels of a protein produced by the liver, called C-reactive protein, which is thought to be involved in the inflammation process.

The higher the levels, the worse the hangover, they found. This is the first study to show this, the team believes. Levels of this protein were also 40 per cent higher in the people who took placebo pills compared with those who took the OFI.

The researchers therefore believe that OFI eases hangovers by soothing the inflammatory response to alcohol.